Trust. That word gets tossed around often in scent work. Have you thought about what that really means? Let’s start by looking at the other side of trust. Some antonyms for trust are: doubt, mistrust, distrust, disbelief. Rejection. Suspicion.
Does this sound like how you would want to describe your relationship with your dog? How about: confidence, certainty, belief, loyalty, sureness. Faith. That is how I think most people would describe our ideal human-canine relationship. It’s easy to have faith when everything is going your way. But the true test of faith is when the going gets tough.
Scent work lessons can be translated into real-life lessons. Real-life experiences can influence scent work experiences. Each season brings new lessons. And experiences. We are in the winter season. In the south this period is brief. But the seasons of learning are much longer. Lengthened by our ability to adapt and learn. Sometimes it can take years to learn this season’s lessons. I had a lesson on forgiveness that spanned several years. Luckily I finally learned that lesson. Or at least the foundations of forgiveness. I continue to expand on my knowledge.
The past two years have been a lesson in trust. Faith. It’s been a long season. Scent work requires an unusual type of teamwork between a human and canine. The dog is supposed to be our guide, and we are their support and interpreter. We spend many hours training our dogs so that when we search we can trust that they will do their job. When you get to the NW3 level of nose work, trust is the foundation of success. In order to trust your dog, you must know your dog. This is something that happens only with time. But you must have the right relationship in order to form the level of trust needed for success.
When we worry we compensate by taking control. Worry is the absence of faith. If we have faith in our dogs, we trust their training, and we trust them to do their job. At my first NW3 with Maisie, I started out without trust. I took control of the searches. I regrouped after the first two searches, and I let Maisie take control. I trusted her. We placed first in those two searches. We also came away with second place overall because of how well we did in just those two searches. But I wasn’t satisfied. I wanted to have complete faith in my partner ALL-THE-TIME. Faith, It’s hard. It requires trusting others to control the outcome. It requires letting go, and I can be a bit of a control freak. But when you have it, the feeling and relationship that you form is immensely gratifying.
But that was a success, regardless of trust. What about when you fail? What happens when you get the dreaded “No”? No is a really hard word to hear in nose work. It’s also hard to hear in real life. Afterward, it’s easy to become disheartened, upset, doubtful. How you handle no shows your level of trust. If you get a no during a search, do you think: my dog is a liar? My dog just wants to mess with me! Or do you trust that your dog told you their truth at that moment to the best of their ability or maybe you made a handling mistake, and just need to problem solve and improve? Once you realize that a no is really just a not now, not this time, you realize that it is just the door closing so another can open for a new opportunity. A new lesson to learn.
And while on our NW3 journey of trust, I also took a leap of faith and gave up my training studio in Greenville and sold my farm down in GA in hopes of finding a perfect place to continue to expand my scent work classes with a better training space, where I could also live and keep my horses (read: extra distractions!). But months turned into over a year, and all I had heard was “NO”. Lots of “No’s”. There were tears, and curse words, and lots of frustration and disappointment. But then I realized that if I had faith that God was in control, then I would know that the right place was out there, and I just had to wait for the right time. The No’s turned into “Not this one”. I stopped worrying and began anticipating the moment I would have a new farm, whenever it would come.
I’m still learning to relax and let go of the control consistently when Maisie and I go to an NW3 trial. When I do, the results are pretty epic. And when I don’t, I figure out the lesson I needed to learn from that trial and get excited for the next one. I feel like I’ve built a strong foundation for this season’s lesson of faith. And I’ve also been rewarded with trusting God, and am happy to announce that my husband and I recently purchased my Scent Work/Home/Horse farm!! How fitting that our new farm is located on…Faith Drive! I’m sure I will need it as this lessons reminder at times.
So, keep the faith, build the trust, keep learning and growing. And I’ll keep growing too.
